I am new to lake fishing

[Kooker]

I am new to lake fishing, and would like a kick start.

Every year at this time I start to see boats fishing little traverse bay at the mouth of the bear river. We bought a pleasure boat this year and would like to give it a try. Salmon?

Equipment wise, what size and type rod and reel? Can I fish them without down riggers? If so what kind of bait?

Thanks in advance

[KJ pluggin]

welcome to GLF Kenn.

Yes, you can fish them without downriggers. I would suggest fishing with dipsy or walker divers, and inline weights. Divers are weighted disks that will take your bait down and to the side. For inline weights, look into the torpedo divers, I think they would be a good substitute for fishing without downriggers. For reels you are going to want a reel with a capacity of 300 yds of 20 lb mono give or take. I like the Okuma convectors for a mid-grade reel. For rods take a look at the Shimano TDR's, good rods that won't break the bank. For baits, flies spoons and plugs will probably all work but I have not fished that area so I don't have any local knowledge on what works there.

[Priority1]

Kenn, Welcome aboard. As stated above the divers may be a good starting option for you. Before you run divers invest in some quality metal rod holders or you will wish you had.

[SeaCatMich]

Good sturdy metal rod holders are important for salmon fishing with divers. If your boat has a railing in the rear a good option to get started with divers would be rail mount rod holders.

If you don't have a rail, most boats come equipped with at least a pair of flush mount rod holders. Unfortunately these are not real useful for salmon fishing. You might actually find it easier and cheaper to go with a pair of used manual downriggers mounted on gimbal mounts to go in the flush mount rod holders than to go with rod holders suitable for divers. Many downriggers will have 2 rod holders with a great deal of adjustment. This would also give you the option to run both rigger rods and/or divers. I did this when I first started fishing with divers before adding separate diver rod holders.

Maybe you could post a picture of your boat's fishing area and we could make more specific suggestions.

[GLF]

I just read the post and the replies and got a smile from ear to ear. This is a GREAT site with a GREAT group of people helping other people.

Some really good advice in all of the replies.

[hear fishy fishy]

A warm welcome aboard!

[Eliminator]

Warm welcome, you wont find a better site for help.

[sherman51]

i would start out by posting and asking for any open seats that fish with divers. that way you can learn more in one day than you can reading and asking questions for a year. the divers are really simple to use, but running more than one per side takes alittle knowledge of what your doing.

you can use dipsy,s or the walker deeper diver, or you can use the one i think is the best of them all. the lite bite slide diver, then just use it like the other divers but use the lite bite arm. just tie to the diver like you would use the others. then use about an 8' floro leader and tie it to a split ring then lace it through the back, and over the lite bite arm. now you can set the tension on the front arm alittle tight so its not tripping all the time. then set the lite bite arm alittle loose so any bite will trip the diver. you can check them out at slidediver.com.

and starting out with any diver i would recommend using braid line in atleast 30#. and just a good medium sized reel should work for you. i recommend some of the cheaper reels to see if you want to keep doing this, but you dont want junk. the cheapest reel i would use would be the daiwa accudepth adp27lc. you dont want the old accudepth but the accudepth plus. then the okuma convector line counter in the 20 or 30 size then the one i really like but is alittle more money unless you get them off ebay, the daiwa sealion sg27lca. these are around 100.00 each, but you can find them on ebay anywhere from about 55.00 to 65.00. i just fish lake erie for walleyes so i use the smaller reels. i use the daiwa reels in the 17 size and the convectors in the 20 size. they make the convector in a 15 size but its frame is made alittle different and i just dont like it.

another tip i will give you is put a couple hundred feet of mono backing on your reels then fill the reels with braid. put the same amount of line on each reel. the mono will keep the braid from slipping on your spools. and the same amount of line on each reel will keep your counters close to the same.

if you have any questions you can pm me and i will try to help you any way i can.

sherman

[SUPERTRAMP]

Kenn, Welcome aboard. As stated above the divers may be a good starting option for you. Before you run divers invest in some quality metal rod holders or you will wish you had.

I would reiterate what Frank said good rod holders and well mounted. If u can afford an adjustable rod holder all the better.

[buster107]

Welcome Kenn!! What was said above is great advice!!!

[Reel Screwd]

Welcome aboard Kenn, you definatly came to the right place for the kick start! these guys will have fish in your boat soon

[Kooker]

Thanks to everyone, cant wait to get started